Simple Text Printer in 2010

[DroopyPawn]

In VB6, when I wanted to print text, I would do something like this...

Dim TextToPrint as string
TextToPrint = LastName(1) & ", " & FirstName(1) & " " & G(1,1) & " " & G(1,2)  & " " & G(1,3) & vbCrLf
TextToPrint = LastName(2) & ", " & FirstName(2) & " " & G(2,1) & " " & G(2,2)  & " " & G(2,3)
TextToPrint = LastName(3) & ", " & FirstName(3) & " " & G(3,1) & " " & G(3,2)  & " " & G(3,3) & vbCrLf
Printer.Print TextToPrint

What's the equivalent in VB 2010?

[jmcilhinney]

In VB.NET you print using a PrintDocument. Call its Print method and handle its PrintPage event. In the event handler, use GDI+ to draw whatever you want printed, e.g. DrawString to print text. It's a bit more complex for simple situations but it's far more powerful and flexible, so it can handle many more complex situations. Merrion has provided a beginners tutorial in the VB.NET CodeBank.

[cicatrix]

Use my Printer class. It's exactly what you need. The code is here:
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=608727

Using it, all you need is to call:

My.Printer.Print(TextToPrint)

[Pradeep1210]

Does this help?
http://pradeep1210.spaces.live.com/b...6BB4!270.entry

[DroopyPawn]

Pradeep, that code looks like it would work well for printing a file that already exists. But that's not what I want to do. I could make a file from my data, but that would be an extra step. I just want to print the data that's already in my app.

I did come up with the code below but is still not quite what I was wanting.

Public Class Form1
    Dim PrintText As String = "Line 1"


    Private Sub btnPrint_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnPrint.Click
        PrintText = PrintText & vbCrLf
        PrintText = PrintText & "Second line" & vbCrLf
        PrintText = PrintText & "Line #3" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
        PrintText = PrintText & "The line after the blank line."
        PrintDocument1.Print()
    End Sub

    Private Sub PrintDocument1_PrintPage(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintDocument1.PrintPage
        Dim x As Single
        Dim y As Single

        x = 10 'e.MarginBounds.Left
        y = 10 ' e.MarginBounds.Top

        Dim PrintFont As New Font("Arial", 10)
        e.Graphics.DrawString(PrintText, PrintFont, Brushes.Black, x, y)

    End Sub

End Class

I'd like to be able to change font size and color in certain areas of text. And I'd like to be able to draw grid lines around tabular data. Looks like I need a separate print line for each line of text to be printed.

I'm still studying it and still looking for more suggestions.

[cicatrix]

Follow the link in my post #3:
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=608727

Just add the code from there into your application and use:

My.Printer.Print("Hello")

[DroopyPawn]

cicatrix, I looked at it.

What if I want to change font size or color in the middle of a sentence?

[cicatrix]

Without messing with the Private Shared Sub PrintPageHandler this would be impossible. Generally you should change _myfont and Brush within this sub to modify the size/color correspondently.

[Pradeep1210]

Maybe something like this would do. Not tested though.

Private Sub PrintDocument1_PrintPage(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintDocument1.PrintPage
    Dim x As Single = 10
    Dim y As Single = 10
    Dim lineHeight As Integer = 10
 
    Dim font_Arial10 As New Font("Arial", 10)
    Dim font_Verdana12B As New Font("Verdana", 12, FontStyle.Bold)
 
    e.Graphics.DrawString("First Line", font_Arial10, Brushes.Black, x, y)
    e.Graphics.DrawString("Second Line", font_Arial10, Brushes.Red, x, y + lineHeight)
    e.Graphics.DrawString("The line after the blank line.", font_Verdana12B, Brushes.Blue, x, y + lineHeight * 3)
 
End Sub

[DroopyPawn]

Yeah, that works.

You showed me how to get colors, sizes, and bold. Thanks.

Can you tell me how to get a light gray filled rectangle around a row or printed text? I need it to go all the way across the page. I tried to get this working. Still searching on how to do it.

e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.AliceBlue,rect:= Rectangle(x,y,60,10)

Also, how could I draw a thin line under a row of text, also all the way across the page?

[jmcilhinney]

To fill a rectangle you call FillRectangle. To draw a line you call DrawLine. You can get things like page dimensions from the 'e' parameter.

[DroopyPawn]

Is that e.Graphics.FillRectangle and e.Graphics.DrawLine?

[DroopyPawn]

I got the box working. Print the box, then print the text over it.

I'm still confused on the whole printing thing though. My app needs to create several different kinds of printouts. When I call

PrintDocument1.Print()

the PrintDocument1_PrintPage is called. Do I need a separate PrintDocument control for each kind of printout or what?

My data will be coming from a DataGridView and will have student names and scores, averages, attendance, personal info, as well as info for assignments, etc.

In VB6, I would just create a long string with vbCRLF items in it, and send that one string to the printer with Printer.Print. I could still do that but I want to add filledrectangles every few lines to make it easier to read.

Any help/suggestions at all would be appreciated.

[jmcilhinney]

You can print whatever GDI+ can draw, which is why .NET printing is more complex than VB6 printing: it's much more powerful. You just need to do some maths to work out where you want everything. It's not that hard but it's not trivial either.

You might use multiple PrintDocuments or you might just use one. A PrintPage event handler is just a method like any other, so it can contain the same code as any other method. It can contain If and/or Select Case statements to do different things based on a condition.

[Pradeep1210]

Here is one of the many ways to use the same PrintDocument object to print multiple types of pages.

Private Sub PrintDocument1_PrintPage(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintDocument1.PrintPage
    Select Case whatever
        Case something
            PrintMethod1(e)
        Case somethingElse
            PrintMethod2(e)
 
    End Select
End Sub
 
Private Sub PrintMethod1(ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs)
    Dim x As Single = 10
    Dim y As Single = 10
    Dim lineHeight As Integer = 10
 
    Dim font_Arial10 As New Font("Arial", 10)
    Dim font_Verdana12B As New Font("Verdana", 12, FontStyle.Bold)
 
    e.Graphics.DrawString("First Line", font_Arial10, Brushes.Black, x, y)
    e.Graphics.DrawString("Second Line", font_Arial10, Brushes.Red, x, y + lineHeight)
    e.Graphics.DrawString("The line after the blank line.", font_Verdana12B, Brushes.Blue, x, y + lineHeight * 3)
End Sub
 
Private Sub PrintMethod2(ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs)
    'second method to print your text
End Sub
 
Private Sub PrintMethod3(ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs)
    'third method to print your text
End Sub

[DroopyPawn]

That's helpful. I assumed it would be something like that. For the case statement condition, would you recommend a global variable, a form.Tag or what?

[jmcilhinney]

The logical option is a private member variable. You need to access it in more than one method but you don't need to access it outside the class.

[Pradeep1210]

That's right. A private member variable seems most logical, unless you have some odd requirement.